If you traveled the Temple Trail between 1871-1877, slow moving teams of oxen hauling massive wagon loads of ponderosa pine timbers may have blocked your way. The timbers were bound for St. George, Utah, some 80-miles away, where Mormon pioneers were building a temple.
St. George Temple Circa 1875
Large quantities of lumber were needed in construction of the St. George Temple for roofing and flooring as well as to provide support for the sandstone walls. Up to the time of construction of the temple, virtually all of the lumber needs for the area came from Pine Valley. This included the St. George Tabernacle and other public buildings and homes, as well as, other Washington County towns and the Nevada towns of Pioche and Panaca. However, this timber source was not adequate to provide all the lumber needed for the Temple. At this time, large stands of yellow (Ponderosa) pine were discovered at Mt. Trumbull. The Temple Trail was explored and built; the mill equipment and experience from the Pine Valley lumbering operations was used by those employed at Mt. Trumbull. The distance from Mt. Trumoull to the Temple (80 miles) is more than twice that of the Pine Valley lumber mils (35 miles).
It took a week to make the trip from the mill to the temple, and in six years teamsters moved more than a million board feet of pine lumber over this rough and arduous route.
Mt. Trumbull’s bountiful forest supplied lumber to build floors, walls, and the temple’s ornate circular stairways.
Temple Trail Trailhead at the base of Mt. Trumbull
Mt. Trumbull Trailhead
GPS Coordinates: 36.39191, -113.15132
Mt. Trumbull Sawmill Memorial Plaque
Sawmill Site
In order to provide lumber for the Temple a sawmill was established at Mt. Trumbull in 1875. There were over forty men building roads to the mill. The sawmill was owned and operated by Benjamin & Frederick Blake. The Blake brothers and others operated a sawmill at this and other locations nearby from the 1870’s to the 1940’s making it the longest running sawmill on the Arizona Strip.
Mt. Trumbull Sawmill Information sign
Just beyond this memorial is the site of the first sawmill at the base of Mt. Trumbull, which provided timbers for the St George Mormon Temple. The sawmill was enlarged in 1874 by the Mormon church under the direction of Robert Gardner, President of the St. George Stake United Order, to obtain more lumber for temple construction. A large mill was sent from Sali Lake City to supplement the smaller existing mill. Both mills were able to saw twenty thousand feet of lumber daily and furnish one million board feet to finish the temple. The lumber was hauled by noted ox team drivers, Frederick and Benjamin Blake, and William A. McCullough over the Temple Trail to the St. George Temple, a distance of 80 miles.
GPS Coordinates: 36.39245, -113.15391
Temple Trail Routes
Marker along the Temple Trail
Hurricane Cliffs
One of several descriptions of the Temple Trail is found in a monument located in Hurricane, Utah and gives the following description: “The Temple Trail, which has two parts, was used to bring lumber from two mills at Nixon Springs on the south face of Mount Trumbull to St. George. Forty-five volunteers constructed the roadways during April and May of 1874. The saw mills operated during the warmer months only. Much of the production went along the main tral that drops down over the Hurricane Cliffs about 20 miles south of Hurricane. During winter months, lumber was taken to Antelope Springs and hauled to St. George when winter snows stopped saw mill work. This lumber was brought through the Humicone cliffs about 12 miles from Hurricane through a dugway that was also used by the Honeymoon Trail.”
The upper trail ran north past Antelope Springs along the top of Hurricane Mesa from Mount Trumbull to the mile-long dugway shored by the Temple Trail with a later Honeymoon Trail.
Fresh boards were hauled from the mills to Antelope Springs during the summer months and then from the springs to St. George during the winter. According to the description in Historical Markers on Waymaking.com this was a dirt wagon road, rough, and in places rock was laid by hand to “build up the roadway which would support the heavy logging wagons.” Those driving the wagons had to deal with washes, canyons, and sandy areas in addition to the steep dugways off the side of the Hurricane Cliffs. According to James B. Bleak the trail was completed by May 16, 1874.
Dugway cut into rock to create a road down Hurricane Cliffs – “Black Rock Road”
A second route, as displayed on this map, used by the logging wagons ran along the “so-called Black Rock Road” that drops down off the Hurricane Cliff through a treacherous dugway (GPS 36.65867, -113.23810) and at the bottom it turns north. It runs along the bottom of the cliffs and merges with the upper trail (mentioned above) that descended through a northern dugway from the top of the Cliffs to the bottom and then both trails ran in a northwesterly direction past Fort Pearce and on to the temple. Both these roads to Trumbull and back required a maintenance crew to make repairs and keep them passable.
Temple Trail sign at the top of the Hurricane Cliffs at “Black Rock Road”
The Black Rock Road route shown in the drone photos above is not shown on either OnX or Gaia GPS apps, but there is a sign at the top and a clear dugway cut through the rock and a road all the way down the cliffs.
Temple Trail A long the Hurricane Cliffs
The Hurricane Cliffs have been a barrier to human travel from time immemorial. Before the temple trail indigenous people had hunting and food gathering trails and the Spanish Fathers Dominguez and Escalante traveled through this country in 1776. Concurrently with the building of the temple and the Settling of the St. George area Indian missionaries notably Jacolo Hamblin and his colleagues and Navajo raiders seeking livestock from the settlements trailed through this rugged country. After the temple was completed the Honeymoon trail was established.
Temple Trail and Alternate Route Intersection Along Navajo Trail
The two different Temple Trail routes intersect along the Navajo Trail at GPS coordinates: 36.74571, -113.29981
Temple Trail at Black Rock Canyon
The original route through Black Rock Canyon was washed out and is now impassable but there is an alternate road to the west. Part of the original road can still be seen from the switchbacks of the new road.
GPS Route Information
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